Right-hippocampal contralateral-hand effect in the recall of spatial location in the tactual modality.

Full Abstract

The recall of spatial location in the tactual modality was investigated in 53 patients with unilateral temporal lobectomy, one patient with bilateral hippocampal damage and 23 normal control subjects. Using only active touch, blindfolded subjects had to locate the position of a map pin within a circular space and then recall its position after a 12- or 24-sec delay. Left temporal-lobe patients (N = 23) were found to perform normally as were right temporal-lobe patients with removals that did not exceed the pes of the hippocampus (N = 22). In contrast, right temporal-lobe patients with large hippocampal excision (N = 8) were impaired on the 24-sec (but not at the 12-sec) delay condition. When performance of the two hands was compared, no difference was found for the left-temporal, right-temporal-small-hippocampal-removal and normal control groups. In contrast, for the right temporal-large-hippocampal-removal group performance on the hand contralateral to the side of temporal lobectomy (left hand) was impaired, whereas right-hand performance in this group was normal. The patient with bilateral hippocampal damage was inferior to the most impaired patient with unilateral temporal lobectomy. These findings suggest that the right and left medial-temporal regions differ in their functional relationships to cerebral areas mediating tactual processing, intact right medial-temporal structures being involved in tactuo-spatial retention bimanually while left medial-temporal structures serve a more specific role confined to the contralateral (right) hand.

Author information

Author/s: Rains, G D (GD); Milner, B (B);

Affiliation: Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Quebec, Canada.

Grants: 13894-08 (Agency:PHS HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Neuropsychologia (Neuropsychologia), published in ENGLAND. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1994-Oct; vol 32 (issue 10) : pp 1233-42

Dates: Created 1995/03/08; Completed 1995/03/08; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 7845563, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.